Deep Cover

This movie was certainly a very unusual but welcoming surprise of a mix between a neo-noir and blaxploitation crime thriller. The acting here is top-notch and the direction and soundtrack are very worthy of praise also, though the main merit here definetely goes to it's great story and script, being very raw, visceral and sensitive in it's portray of such a massive problem, that manages to correctly tackle it's actual, undercover (pun-intended) roots, showing that even the ones that are supposed to protect us probably might as well be the cause of the problem; unlike most films in it's likeness that offer a innacurate, sanitized and quite honestly romanticized -- for both sides -- depiction of traficcking.

Damn solid movie overall. Worth checking out if you can't decide on in a movie one night.

still a good watch, decades later

It hasn't aged well.

I will watch this movie over and over again. A very serious look into what is good and evil.

Early 90's west coast crime drama has aged quite well. Wonderful cinematography and some noir-ish style make the already compelling tale more easy to get swept up in.

"No, Mr. Guzman, I think you'll note there's no such thing as an American anymore. No Hispanics, no Japanese, no blacks, no whites, no nothings. Just rich people and poor people. The three of us are all rich, so we're on the same side." Noted character actor Bill Duke moves behind the camera to direct a crime thriller filled with political acuity. Deep Cover doesn't languish in photorealistic portraits of urban life, trending towards excess to hammer its points home, but feels sharp as a tack describing the still-relevant corrupt balance between politics, money, crime, drugs, and racism, a cocktail built on human suffering and designed to crank out money. While Infernal Affairs and The Departed would make undercover cop work into a psychological experience, here it's more straightforward and grounded, but without forgetting that there's a sense of unpredictability and entertainment value that needs to be maintained. "Larry" Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum form this entertaining odd couple dynamic that builds into an oddly compelling kinship by the film's final scenes. Don't let people tell you that this is just a predictable '90s take on the blaxploitation genre, there was clear intent behind this film even if audiences have come to expect a greater degree of grit in their crime films. (3.5/5)

A bit of the acting is over the top, but the melodrama suits the film noir style that it's molded itself after. It's a hard boiled detective crime drama that has some important points to make about race and the state of America in the 90s. It's bleak, it's dark, I loved it.

I had no idea that Larry Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum did a movie together. This was really good. Most movies don't age so well. There was a tiny bit of 90s cheese in there, but it wasn't too detracting.

There's deep cover and there's "the ugly side of war" Directed by Bill Duke and starring Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldbulm Fishburne is detective Russell Stevens and Goldblum is the biggest drug dealer in the streets of LA, David Jason Russell grew up with a junkie of a father, always getting hooked on crack and dying because of his criminal ways Russell made sure it would never happen to him so he becomes a police detective David by day is actually a family man with a clean image but his real activity goes down at night In order to bring David down Russell must go undercover and infiltrate the ring But it also might force him to go to great depths and lengths even by selling product Anything like eliminating David's competition to get as close as possible Is he doing any good or is the whole operation a sham? Is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop? He can't take the pressure anymore of lying and killing The film has two well-matched leads and a pretty grim look on the crack epidemic being taken down It does get pretty convoluted at times and feels longer than it should but its societal decay is vivid enough Definitely lots of hypocrisy about the USA's war on drugs Concepts of good and evil create a moral compass too